ISTANBUL (AP) - Kurdish rebels killed five Turkish troops and injured four early yesterday in a clash that erupted as about 10,000 soldiers sought to hunt down members of the main Kurdish rebel group in eastern Turkey, a military official said. The five troops were killed in a battle with some 350 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the official said. He said the rebels were preparing for the winter in a rural area near Tunceli in eastern Turkey, where Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy since 1984.

PRISTINA (AFP) - A lawyer and politician from Kosovo’s ethnic Turkish minority was killed in a drive-by shooting in the troubled province’s south, police and officials said yesterday. “A man was found wounded in the town of Prizren late in the evening on Tuesday. He was transferred quickly to hospital but died from his wounds afterward,” a police spokesperson told journalists. Police refused to reveal the identity of the man but the leader of the KDTP Turkish minority party told AFP the victim was Ibish Cakalli, 54, a lawyer and KDTP member. “I don’t know why he was killed. I hope there are no political motives,” KDTP leader Mahir Jagxhillar told AFP. Police said the man was killed “from a moving vehicle.”

Turkey’s entry into the European Union will strengthen and enrich the bloc and help it become a global power, the government minister in charge of Ankara’s negotiations said yesterday. Unveiling Turkey’s preparations for its EU accession talks, Ali Babacan said Turks would also benefit from rising living standards and greater economic and political stability as full membership nears. “The EU has entered a new powerful stage politically, strategically and economically since October 3, and has moved closer to its goal of becoming a global power,” Babacan told a news conference. (Reuters)

The German government yesterday pledged half a million euros to help move hundreds of war-displaced Gypsies from lead-contaminated camps in northern Kosovo, officials said. Germany earmarked 500,000 euros for the relocation of Gypsies, or Roma, who live in three makeshift camps in Zitkovac, Kablare and Cesmin Lug, said Eugen Wollfarth, the top German diplomat in Kosovo. The Roma living in the camps, which are located near an industrial area with high lead levels, were displaced from their homes after the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo. Authorities in Kosovo have been criticized for not dealing with the situation. “Health and living conditions in the refugee camps... are unbearable,” Wollfarth said. (AP)